I touched him, one hand firmly against his chest. His hooded gaze lazily traced across that hand and back up to my face. “We can do ittogether, Ash,” I whispered, needing to take that final step toward trust and forgiveness.
Asher’s head dropped as his eyes closed tightly; we remained like that for many seconds. When he finally lifted his head, my chest hurt at the perfect clear green of his eyes. I almost couldn’t detect any gold at all, and that was the first time in a long time.
“I’ve missed you,” he said hoarsely, and I tried to answer, but I couldn’t make the words happen.
“I’ve missed you,” I finally said.I’ve died a million deaths since you were taken from me.
As if Asher heard those words, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me tightly into his body. I closed my eyes and breathed him in. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, “I’m so fucking sorry. I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I need you to know that I will never stop working toward the moment you trust me again. If you need more space, I’ll give it to you. But I’m never going away.”
I snuggled even closer, needing more. “No more space,” I said into his chest. “I trust you.”
He pulled back and I briefly mourned the loss. “You don’t,” he started softly. “Not completely … but you will.”
It was time to take that first step forward. “I found the library,” I told him.
He smiled down at me, not at all surprised. “I know. I’ve followed you there multiple times, but I never went inside.”
I was blinking and thinking and trying to figure out how I felt about that. “You followed me?”
He pushed some hair back from my face. “You’re my soul, Maddison James. I’m not letting you wander around unprotected.”
My eyebrows creased as I nailed him with a glare. His smile grew, turning into laughter. “I know you can take care of yourself, but it gives me peace of mind to know I have your back.”
It gave me peace of mind too.
I smacked him on the shoulder. “You let me believe you didn’t know where it was!”
Asher shrugged, still smiling. “I wanted you to tell me. The moment you did, I knew we were on the right path back to trust. To everything.”
The heat grew between us, and even though I knew the others were outside of my water barrier waiting for us, I couldn’t waste this alone opportunity with Asher. He moved closer and I let out one small breath of anticipation as his lips touched mine. We had kissed since he’d returned, mostly kisses of lust and anger and fear. But this kiss, the soft touch that grew deeper as his tongue stroked mine, was one of pure love.
Someone banged on my barrier, but neither of us stopped kissing. I wasn’t sure we could.
“They’re not going to stop,” he murmured against my lips, and I sighed.
“I know. We really should go anyway. I have no idea how long until the gods attack. We need to find this information and get back to Atlantis.”
Asher nodded, and I took one more second to watch him closely. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? With Galindra?”
His chuckle was dark. “I’ve wanted to kill her from the first moment I opened my eyes. That’s my end game. I know there is a way, I just need the time to find it.” His gaze was hot, consuming. “I won’t let her touch you. I don’t care now what I have to do. I won’t let anything come between us again.”
I could tell that he meant it. But that didn’t stop the fear in my gut.
With a sigh, I let the magical water barrier collapse, sending all the liquid back to wherever I got it from.
Ilia was the only one waiting on the other side. “About freaking time,” she said with a knowing grin. “Let me guess … you were playing chess?”
“Scrabble, actually,” I said with a smile. “I kicked his ass.”
Asher muttered something, but he was smiling. “Did Connor tell the others what’s going on?”
Ilia nodded. “Yep. They’re heading into the library now. I was waiting here to make sure you two didn’t run off to make babies.”
“Scrabble,” I muttered. “I said Scrabble.”
Ilia’s grin was broad as amusement danced in her gaze. “Right.”
Spinning on my heel, I started toward the library, not pausing or looking back. But I felt Asher right there with me, his energy as familiar to me as my own, and I couldn’t stop that trembling happiness that was starting to blast through the darkness I’d been living with for so long.
